UKIP's leader, Gerard Batten, has made an extraordinary call for people to boycott signing up for the Army until Brexit had been achieved.

The litle-known leader, elected in February, claimed that British troops "are no longer fighting for Queen and country but under a foreign military command".

And he claimed prime minister Theresa May had "already stated her intention to tie us into the EU’s military ambitions even if we nominally leave under her plan".

In a statement, Batten said: "Nick Clegg once said that the idea that the EU was developing its own military was a 'dangerous fantasy'. This news has revealed Nick Clegg to be the fantasist.

"No one should now join the British Army until we have left the EU and this has all been reversed. Our soldiers are no longer fighting for Queen and country but under a foreign military command.

"Our ancestors, the heroes of the Armada, Waterloo, Trafalgar, Passchendaele, El-Alamein, and others too numerous to mention, did not fight so that their descendants could serve under the flag of a foreign power. Mrs May has already stated her intention to tie us into the EU’s military ambitions even if we nominally leave under her plan.

"The sooner we are out of the EU, the sooner we will be able to rebuild our military into a force which serves the interests of our nation first and foremost. Meanwhile British men and women should vote with their feet and not join the armed forces."

In its press release, UKIP foams that "video was recently released of British soldiers stepping off a Voyager transport plane in Bosnia with the [EU] symbol clearly shown". They are likely to be part of Operation Althea, a training and stabilisation mission comprising 600 troops from a number of NATO members.

It is authorised by the UN and has been in operation in Bosnia since 2004.

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